One of the most creative parties to date was the Museum of Contemporary Art’s (MOCA) Bohemian Bash which took place Saturday night at the museum. The evening’s theme celebrated the role of the unconventional in the artistic process, a reference to the Dadaist movement of the early 1900s that included surreal happenings and feted the irrational (glad we paid attention in Art History). And unconventional it was, with everything from an upside-down living room suspended from the ceiling above one of the bars; fortune tellers, spontaneous poets, who composed poems for guests on the spot; avant-garde films and images projected on dramatically lit oversized white balloons covering the ceiling, the Escher-inspired black and white optical illusion dessert room, a frenetic tap dancer covered in gold metallic-paint in a gold room, and sultry burlesque dancers performing behind a screen.
Then there was the music: dance music by DJ Faux Real, who spun from a scaffold; folk music, classical quartets courtesy of FIU Music School and spontaneous opera arias. The Grey Goose was free-flowing as were wine and champagne, as partygoers enjoyed delicious bites from Solea at W South Beach, Le Basque and Shiraz. Aside from being stunning aesthetically, the party was a blast. One photographer remarked, “I’m having so much fun, I’ve hardly taken any photos!”
Challenged to dress “Bohemian Chic,” the anything goes attire ranged from Parisian Café Society to 60s Flower Children. The Bohemian Bash was the brainchild of MOCA Director and Chief Curator, Bonnie Clearwater and Chairs Barbara Herzberg and Alan and Diane Lieberman. Guests also included Belkys Nerey, Honorary Chair and Ray Ellen Yarkin, President MOCA Board of Trustees and husband Allan Yarkin of Bohemian Bash sponsor Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Dr. Shulamit and Chaim Katzman, City of North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre, Suzy Buckley, Erin Newberg, Dr.Julio Gallo, Jillian Jacobson-Altit, and Jason and Haley Binn of Ocean Drive Magazine.
